More Articles

The city’s second shelter for homeless families, expected to open next spring, will be operated
by Volunteers of America of Greater Ohio.

The agency might not have to wait long to fill the beds.

More than 120 homeless families were being served this week through the YWCA Family Center,
which opened in 2005 and was designed for 50 families.

That overflow — parents and kids are being put up on cots, in churches and motels — is close to
the 85-family capacity of the new family shelter being built inside a renovated commercial building
at 595 Van Buren Dr. on the West Side.

“We’re going to be prepared for that scenario,” said Dennis Kresak, president and CEO of
Volunteers of America of Greater Ohio. “We’re committed, and we’re very excited about this
opportunity.”

The Volunteers of America organization is to receive $2.2 million to operate the shelter and
address what the Community Shelter Board calls “exponential growth” in family homelessness. It’s up
about 65 percent over the past three years.

The YWCA of Central Ohio decided against vying to become the operator for the second
shelter.

Of the local YWCA’s $8 million budget, about 25 percent now goes to the family shelter,
officials say. The shelter board also provides money for the YWCA Family Center.

“There has been a lot of strain,” said Elfi Di Bella, president and CEO of the YWCA of Central
Ohio. “We felt that bringing more partners to the table was best.”

Di Bella said shelter providers want to look deeper into the reasons behind the community’s
spike in homelessness, which also has led to long waiting lists for single men and women seeking
shelter.

About a third of all families being served have been homeless before, and officials say that
return-to-shelter rate has increased.

Kresak said Volunteers of America is aiming to provide intensive case management to help more
families become stable.

“That’s the only way we’re going to prevent that relapse — that merry-go-round of people coming
back in,” he said.

Although the agency plans to work within the budget it is being given, Kresak said Volunteers of
America “is willing to invest some of our own dollars” to help keep families from becoming homeless
again.

The new family shelter is being built on the second floor of the Van Buren Drive building. The
building also is being developed as a new shelter for single adults, opening next month.

Volunteers of America is one of the nation’s largest human-services organizations and operates
other shelters and services for the homeless.